This was discussed last October in a match programme and subsequently on the club website...
FLYNNZINE
Brian Flynn's latest Flynnzine appeared in last Saturday's Robins' Review
"There’s no better place to celebrate a victory or cry into your beer after a miserable defeat, than the convivial atmosphere of The Noel White Suite. One of our supporters, who helps us all put the world to rights in there, is Martin Green and a few months ago he told me about a 1960s' film that he had purchased on the internet called ‘Cup Fever’. The film was made by The Children’s Film and Television Foundation and tells the story of a junior Football Club from Manchester and Moss Lane is featured significantly towards the end of the film.
The brief description on the cover of the video, that Martin subsequently lent me, comes from an era where intrigue and suspense were clearly not top of the copywriting agenda. It states ‘Barton United’s hopes of winning the Manchester Junior Football League Cup receive a setback when their practice ground is taken over for use as a car park. Luckily Manchester United help them with their training and enable them to win the cup’!
The final of the cup is played at Moss Lane and there is some wonderful footage of our ground which is packed with the schoolchildren of Altrincham, one of whom, Barry Heaton, a season ticket holder who sits on the back row of the main stand, remembers coming along to watch proceedings.
Filmed in glorious black and white, the old main stand that was replaced around 1966/7 is shown in all its glory and there is a great shot of the old Golf Road turnstiles (definitely pre- Warren Peyton) which used to have the words ‘Altrincham F.C.’ proudly above them. The scenes that resonated the most with me personally, were shot in a part of the ground that is now part of the Sponsors’ Lounge. At that time it was The Groundsman’s shed or as it was more commonly known “Jack Thorpe’s shed”.
Jack is coming up to the grand old age of 97 and incredibly is still a regular at Moss Lane with his son Dave who works in the Club Shop. His shed was an important place as far as my early days watching Alty were concerned, as it doubled up as a changing room for the ballboys....my first official role at Moss Lane....... in the early seventies.
The film has a strong cast including Bernard Cribbins, Susan George and Olivia Hussey, who I think is the young girl who can’t bear to watch the match and hides in Jack’s shed for the majority of it. There are also appearances by Sir Matt Busby, George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and even our very own Jack Crompton, who I think was Manchester United’s trainer at that time.
Bernard Cribbins, a local policeman, organises a training session for the team with the United players at Old Trafford and they are all introduced to Sir Matt beforehand. One of the team’s helpers is a young lad with the nickname ‘Fatso’ and the highlight line in the film for me is when Sir Matt utters the immortal words “Hello Fatso” as he introduces himself to the players and helpers before the training session.
There is also some excellent footage of Old Trafford, which looks a lot smaller than I remember it. The state of the art....well it was then....... Cantilever Stand (now North Stand) was being built and the historical interest of the film is not just about football grounds....there are some great shots of 1960s' Manchester, including Piccadilly Gardens and the area around where the Trafford Centre is now.
They certainly don’t make them like they used to and hopefully we will be able to make this film available for Altrincham fans to purchase in the near future. Another episode of ‘Cup Fever’ would do nicely today with the same result that Barton Rovers achieved at Moss Lane!
Brian".
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Cup Fever...calling all film buffs.
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Topic: Cup Fever...calling all film buffs. (Read 8193 times)